Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Neasden: Why It Occurs
Keep your motor and ignition off and call 0333 366 0103 first — reading can wait if AdBlue is already in your diesel tank. Normally, if the motor has not run, it is emptied and fully rinsed where the vehicle sits in Neasden. The rest of this page covers why it takes place and how to make sure it doesn't — handy if you're reading before it has happened.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel vehicle need its own filler?
Diesel goes to your motor — but plenty of current diesels driven about Neasden and Dollis Hill carry a second liquid too. Your exhaust, not the engine, is where AdBlue goes: sprayed into the gas to fresh them, from its own tank.
Each tank has its own filler. Many of vehicles have a single flap for the two, whereas some move the AdBlue filler to the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is filled at the petrol pump all the time. The AdBlue side is topped up far less frequently, normally from a bottle, and normally by someone who has to stop and think where it goes. It is in the gap that the slip happens.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank happen in Neasden?
Seldom is it carelessness: normally three things coincide.
Hurry comes from the warning. The car warns you as AdBlue runs low, and a dry tank puts it into limp mode — so the top-up gets done in a rush, before work on a drive off Neasden Lane, or on the way home in the car park outside Tiffty Tom's.
Then your car is strange. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one did not, and the hand hits for the cap it would have used on the old one.
A spout-topped bottle finds no resistance at a diesel filler any more than at an AdBlue one. And so the tip, once started, carries on. Brent Park or the middle of Neasden: it is the same few seconds either way.
The AdBlue filler and your diesel filler: telling them apart
Look at these first, at a forecourt around Neasden or a driveway over in Willesden. A few seconds, that's all.
- Read the cap rather than going by where it sits: AdBlue caps are regularly blue or marked "AdBlue", and diesel caps usually aren't.
- The size. On many vehicles the AdBlue filler neck is the smaller of the two.
- Check inside the fuel flap: many motors have a label there showing which fuel goes where.
- The handbook. If your filler isn't by the diesel cap, it's in your boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Picking up a hire or company car, perhaps at the car park at Brent Cross West? Check with the person who drove it last before leaving, rather than once the light goes on.
How to top up without AdBlue in your diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere across Greater London, use this routine.
- Pull in somewhere level, engine off, with time in hand — not hurried on the side of Bermans Way.
- Locate the AdBlue filler, read the cap, and speak the word "AdBlue" aloud while unscrewing it. It sounds silly. It works.
- If both sit under one flap, check the diesel cap is still closed before you lift the bottle — then leave the vehicle on.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it is full or when the bottle is empty.
- Shut the cap, then look again — confirm the diesel cap remained shut the whole time. Only then, start your car.
Find at the second or third stage that AdBlue went into the diesel filler? That is where you stop. Leave out stage five altogether.
Put AdBlue in your diesel tank in Neasden already?
Don't start the motor: that's where the short order of things begins. Leave your ignition off as well, because on many diesels it by itself starts your fuel pump. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of the tank, where your fuel is pulled from — so do not top up with diesel to thin it.
The staff at Shell, Esso or any forecourt will usually help to push your car clear if you ask. On your own drive around Neasden? So the vehicle remains where it is.
Stop as soon as it is safe then switch off, if the engine has already run. Leave the M1 — under 3 miles out of Neasden — at the first exit. A short hop across Neasden is a smaller job than a run towards Westminster, under 10 miles away, so tell us about how far it went.
When we get there around Neasden, what occurs?
Anywhere the car has stopped, be it outside Northview Junior and Infant School, beside Neasden - St Catherine w St Paul or at home, the van travels to it. Which liquid went in, the amount, and if it ran: our engineers ask because the answers decide the work and quote. On the call itself, you hear our quote — before anything else.
Your system is then purged thoroughly, after that tank is drained. More than with petrol, it matters here: crystals build up, some metals corrode, and nothing clears away on its own, however long it sits. Filter cleaned or, where it must be, swapped; fresh diesel in; then a test of your vehicle. We don't go until it has been started and is running properly.
Most jobs are done in roughly half an hour once our engineers get there, provided your engine has not run — and the pumps our technicians use are safe on a busy forecourt and quiet after dark beside a house. Nothing upfront; you settle up that day. Afterwards, the VAT invoice and the report from the engineer are handed to you for your insurer. Before we get there, take a look at your insurance documents; many carry cover for misfuelling.
About Neasden, briefly
Neasden is a suburban area in northwest London, situated near the River Brent and the Grand Union Canal. Neasden sits at an elevation of around 47 metres, with nearby open spaces including Brent Park and the Welsh Harp reservoir. Neasden is characterized by its predominantly flat-based residential accommodation, with nearby neighbourhoods including Dudden Hill and Church End.
AdBlue drains across Greater London, Neasden included
As a residential suburb, Neasden shares its vans nearby places — Dudden Hill, Church End — all the way through NW postcodes and the surrounding area around them. A postcode starting NW10 1 gets the van to you fastest.
The car doesn't need to move. Draining takes place on the spot, be it a driveway, a street by Neasden Library Plus, or a lay-by towards Neasden Lane Park. Guessing won't help behind Willesden Magistrates' Court, close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to pin down; phone and check.
In short, for Neasden drivers
Pour no AdBlue till you've read the cap. Still AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel will drain it wherever it stands, anywhere across Greater London: switch the car off then ring 0333 366 0103.